In his final novel, the Nobel Prize winner daringly reimagines the characters and narratives of the Old Testament in the story of the first murderer. Condemned to wander forever after he kills his brother Abel, Cain makes his way through the world in the company of a personable donkey. He is a witness to and participant in the stories of Isaac and Abraham, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Moses and the golden calf, and the trials of Job. The rapacious Queen Lilith takes him as her lover. An old man with two sheep on a rope crosses his path. And again and again, Cain encounters a God whose actions seem callous, cruel, and unjust. He confronts Him, he argues with Him, "and one thing we know for certain," José Saramago writes, "is that they continued to argue and are arguing still."

"Cain's vagabond journey builds to a stunning climax that, like the book itself, is a fitting capstone to a remarkable career."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)